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Red Tomato Relish

A relish made from chopped red tomatoes, mustard seed, onions, celery, sugar, spices, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Red Tomato Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the red tomatoes and place them in a large bowl.

  2. Add the mustard seed, salt, chopped onions, nutmeg, chopped celery, ground black pepper, sugar, and cinnamon, then mix all ingredients thoroughly.

Jar

  1. Transfer to jars and seal while hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Red tomatoes
Forms the bulk of the relish and supplies moisture and fresh tomato flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharpness of the spices and vinegar-free tang.
Mustard seed
Contributes pungent, slightly bitter heat and a crunchy texture.
Onions
Adds savory depth and aroma as they soften into the relish.
Celery
Adds a crisp, vegetal texture and mild savory flavor.

The step that matters

Transfer to jars and seal while hot. Sealing hot relish helps drive air out of the jars as it cools, which creates a vacuum seal and reduces the chance of spoilage. Jars should be filled promptly and sealed while the contents are still hot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, mustard, nutmeg, celery, pepper, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, nutmeg, celery, pepper, sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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